Earth lovers, I just read “Into the Heart of Our World -- A Journey to the Center of the Earth: A Remarkable Voyage of Scientific Discovery” by David Whitehouse and recommend it if you want to see earth first. It was highly recommended by Arne Saknussemm and Jules Verne. The cover and back have great cave photos.
Ron From: Geary Schindel Sent: Wednesday, February 17, 2016 7:34 AM To: mailto:texascavers@texascavers.com ; bexargro...@googlegroups.com Subject: [BexarGrotto] NSS Webinar Talk tonight (Wednesday) February 17. Dr. Alexander Folks, This talk is about looking at extreme environments on earth (The bottom of the Soudan Mine) and using them to compare to current conditions on Mars. Dr. Calvin Alexander has some wonderful pictures of the Martian landscape from some of the high resolution Martian probes that clearly show caves, sinkholes, paleo sinking streams, rimstone dams, and paleo and possible existing springs. If there is life on Mars, it will probably be subsurface and possibly associated with caves and groundwater. This should prove to be a popular presentation. Register and get there early. Thanks, Geary Schindel "The Soudan Mine Hydrobiogeology: A Martian Analog?" (similarity) Rimstone dams found on Mars Join us for a webinar on Feb 17, 2016 at 8:00 PM CST, (Which is 9PM EST / 7PM MST / 6PM PST. Please check your time zone for the correct start time. Register now! https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/6013464760054344705 Speaker: Dr. Calvin Alexander, Professor Emeritus Earth Sciences Department University of Minnesota. The Soudan Iron Mine in northeastern Minnesota mined high grade hematite from the late 1800s until about 1960 in 2.7 billion year old rocks. When the mine ceased operations it was given to the State of Minnesota and continues operations as State Historic Park offering mine tours to visitors. The mine has a calcium, sodium, magnesium chloride brine about twice as salty as sea water that seeps into its lowest level. The brine is anoxic (oxygen free) and has high concentrations of ferrous iron. These anoxic, waters are actively depositing a wide variety of classic cave formations: flow stones, stalagmites, soda straw stalactites and rimstone dams. These formations are made of the iron oxides ferrihydrite and goethite and contain the mineral jarosite – and are spectacularly colored. Photographs of Mars surface features apparently produced by liquid water, have increased in number, resolution and credibility. The “gullies” discovered on Mars by the high resolution MOS orbiter camera have been confirmed by the higher resolution HiRISE orbiter images and are now known to occur widely on Mars. In several locations on Mars the MOS and HiRISE images reveal structures that appear to be rimstone dams associated with the distal ends of gullies. The presence of iron oxide rimstone dams growing from the brines in the Soudan Mine suggest that those brines may be an analog for conditions on some parts of Mars. It is interesting to note that in the Soudan Mine brines form a productive environment for several microbiological communities. Please arrive at least 10 minutes to make sure you have a seat at this webinar. This and all prior webinars are recorded and stored on the NSS website, www.caves.org for future viewing. The opinions expressed in this webinar are not necessarily those of the NSS. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar. View System Requirements -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Bexar Grotto" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to bexargrotto+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
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